If I had to choose two of my favorite types of sketching materials, I’d have to say brush pens and colored pencils. You can imagine my thrill when I opened the July ArtSnacks box and found a Pentel Duopoint Flex Double-Ended Brush Pen and two Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle colored pencils! In addition, I got a Derwent HB Graphic Drawing Pencil and a Derwent 2-in-1 Eraser/Sharpener. A bonus was a 15 percent discount coupon to Artist & Craftsman Supply (online or in store). A&C is one of very few remaining brick-and-mortar art supply stores in Seattle, so I’m happy to take my coupon over there to shop (Ed note: There’s also an A&C in KC and one of my favorites as well!). My box also contained a red-hot Atomic FireBall and a much-loved ArtSnacks sticker.
There’s only one way to truly show off shimmer/sparkle/pearlescent inks and that’s with video. I apologize for the 25-minute long video but its not my fault that deAtramentis decided to release 40 colors in their new line of Pearlescent inks. There’s ten different colors of ink on four different sparkle/pearlescent bases. The ten colors are whisky brown, amber yellow, camellia, magenta red, heliogreen, brilliant violet, cyan blue, indian blue, columbia blue, and velvet black. Each color has been released with a gold pearlescent, silver pearlescent, copper pearlescent and bronze pearlescent base. So far.
I didn’t have all 40 of the deAtramentis samples, only about 26 of them but that’s still a serious sampling that will give you a good idea of what these inks colors look like across the bases. I was missing a lot of the copper and bronze versions unfortunately which are the most unique aspects of the deAtramentis line.
The best way to compare these colors is to show them side-by-side with Diamine Shimmer and J. Herbin 1670 colors. I was missing a few of the Diamine Shimmer ink samples as well but again, I feel like I was able to get a pretty close comparison to the inks I had from deAtramentis. I’m amazed at how many sparkle inks are on the market now.
Summer makes me crave lemonade, turquoise blues and leafy palm greens whether I am land-locked or on the coast. Hope you are someplace enjoying a sunny beach, a cocktail and a sea breeze!
TWSBI Eco Turquoise Fountain pen $39.99USD Available in August (via Appelboom)
Recommended summer listening: The English Beat AKA The Beat: The perfect poolside, umbrella-in-your-cocktail, lime-in-your-beer, sand-in-your-flip-flops, chlorine-in-your-hair tunes. Any first wave ska or reggae will do in a pinch. Apply coconut scented sunscreen liberally.
June was the month for quarterly pencil subscriptions. All three of the major quarterly pencil subscriptions arrived within a couple weeks of each other. The C.W. Pencils Pencil Box #2: Japan Box, the Baron Fig Archer Prismatic and the Palomino Blackwing Editions #73 Lake Tahoe edition all arrived in June 2017. On the surface, they are all pencil subscriptions and the all ship quarterly but beyond that, I feel they all do very different things.
Of course, if you are a pencil enthusiast, you may find yourself subscribing to more than one of these subscriptions – or all three.
If you have stalled out in your daily journaling, planning, drawing, writing or just felt like you need a bit of a kick start to get back to basics, the One Book July Challenge is a great chance to commit to a specific notebook or planning system and figure out if it works for you. Always wanted to try bullet journaling? Have a beautiful Filofax that’s been languishing in a cupboard? Have a Traveler’s Notebook cover and a stack of inserts you keep waiting for the perfect time to use? This is it.
In the US, we are looking towards a long holiday weekend this weekend giving many folks a bit of downtime to streamline and reflect. The weather predictions here in Kansas City are foreboding so working on my journal/planner/notebook is an optimal use of the upcoming few days.
The current notebook problem!
At the moment, I’m carrying both a new Roterfaden (I’ll have more information about this in an upcoming post, I promise!) and a Traveler’s Notebook plus a pocket-sized Traveler’s Notebook and my sketchbook which doesn’t necessarily travel (I have one at home and one at work). So, some streamlining is in order for sure.
I feel like the pocket notebook is exempt as its the “jot down a quick note” cover for when I carry nothing else. When I go out for dinner, groceries or shopping, I take my wallet, keys, phone and the pocket-sized TN. But am I kidding myself? Should I throw a few index cards in my wallet instead?
So, I’m going to try to pare down and focus. I’m also going to try to do a little 30 day drawing project in July from an old issue of Flow magazine. It’s from Issue 13, One Letter A Day to get back into the habit of drawing more regularly.
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Field Notes has released their summer Colors Editions, the 35th quarterly edition, Campfire Edition. If you don’t subscribe yet, there’s still time. I just want the patch! Hopefully, mine will arrive soon. I just got shipping update info that said the package left Chicago but it often travels to Milwaukee first before it gets routed to Kansas City which means with the holiday weekend, I won’t see it until sometime after the 4th. Boo.
Crayola:
Crayola and Sally Hansen created a line of nail polish inspired by your favorite crayon colors. There are twelve shades including the recently retired Dandelion yellow. They should be available on July 1. (via AltPress)
I guess I’ll paint my nails while I wait for my Field Notes.
Deals:
Our pals over a Karas Kustoms/Karas Pen Co. are taking a little summer vacation. Their shop will be closed from July 1st through July 9th. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still place orders on their online site and save few bucks in the process. From Friday, June 30th through July 10th, use the coupon code USA2017 to receive 15% off your entire purchase. That’s darn right patriotic of them, isn’t it? Orders will ship out when they return, sunburned with a little sand still in the shoes.
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